Raeff_Modernity

1230

Marc

Raeff

to lend

to official acts more authority

and free them as much

as possible

from

personal relationships

and influences

by making them more

"objective"

and

regular.

It meant, in

short, to endow the administration

with the arcane

aura of the distinct

and objective,

and hence

the superior.25 It also served

to

instill

in the

population

the

notion

of

the

state

as a separate,

autonomous

entity with its own-not

merely the ruler's-goals,

interests,

and

needs.

Inasmuch as the administration

was the source

of the guidance,

furtherance,

and control

of all potential

energies,

it had also a didactic

function

in famil-

iarizing the people with its designs and goals. To our

eyes, the

minute

and

petty

prescriptions

for the operation

of offices and clerkships

to be

found

in

many Polizeiordnungen

and learned

treatises of cameralist

writers

may seem

naive

or slightly

ridiculous.

But

they

are illustrative

of

the new

concerns

of

government;

the

instruments

of

administration

were

coming

to be as im-

portant

as the ends

they

served

or promoted,

and

they were

acquiring

a life

of their

own,

becoming

an end

in themselves.

The

very routine

of govern-

ment

operations

threatened

to swallow

up the purpose

for which

it had been

introduced,

and

the

personnel

of

administration-the

bureaucracy-was

evolving

into

a

separate

class with

its

own

specific

interests,

interests

that

were

identified

with those of the state rather than with

those of a particular

estate. The arrogance and self-righteousness

of

administrative

power

that

reached

the extreme degree

we observe

in

the

Russia

of Peter the Great or

the Austria of Joseph II take their roots in this development.

What

has

frequently

been

considered

a

particular

manifestation

of the

brutal

didacticism

of

Peter

I of

Russia,

of his desire

to civilize

his

society

at

one blow and to establish

rigid

and

all-pervading

state

controls

over

all

aspects of public

and private life,

was, in fact, nothing

but

a straight

copying

and translating of earlier German Kanzleiordnungen.26

And

Peter's

rough

and outspoken

style has its match

in the earthy language of the

roi sergeant.

The

didactic

success

of

Kanzleiordnungen

in

introducing

a

new

adminis-

trative

outlook

and

practice

may

be

inferred

from

the fact that half a

century

later

standard

authors

of treatises

of

administration

did

not

need

to go

into

as much

detail as had

Seckendorff,

for

the

procedures

had

come

to be taken for granted.27 The

process

of assimilation

was slower

in

Russia,

as may be gathered

from the

detailed

regulations

and

forms

still

prescribed

25 Volker Press,

Calvinismus

und

Territorialstaat:

Regieriung

und

Zentralbehorden

der Kur-

pfalz,

I559-16I9

(Stuttgart,

1970),

and for the

Russian

case, see

the

suggestive

ideas

of Michael

Cherniavsky, "The Old Believers and the

New

Religion," Slavic Review,

1i

(1966):

1-39.

ed.,

26 See,

for

instance,

the

Kanzleiiordnung

dated

December

15,

1684,

in

C.

G.

Appel,

Sammlung Fiirstlich-hessischer

Landesordnungen

und

Ausschreiben .

. .

,

pt. 3: I671-1729

(Cassel, 1770), no. 409; see also Veit Ludwig von Seckendorff, Teutscher Fiirstenstaat

(1656; rev. cd.,

Jena, 1737; rpt., Aalen, 1972),

pt. 2,

ch. 6. And see Horst

Kraemer, Der deutsche

Kleinstaat

des I7.

Jahrunderts im

Spiegel

von

Seckendorffs

'Teutscher

Fiirstenstaat'

(Darmstadt,

1974).

aus

der

27 For

example,

Christian

A. Beck,

Versuch einer

Staatspraxis

oder

Canzleiiibung

Politik,

dem

Staat-

und

Volkerrechte

(Vienna,

1754).

In

contrast

to Seckendorff,

see

any

of the better-known

treatises

on

Polizeiwissenschaft

by

Johann

Heinrich

Gottlob

von Justi,

Joachim

Georg

Darjes,

and

Joseph

von

Sonnenfels.

The Well-Ordered Police

State

1231

by the

imperial administration

at

the

end

of

the eighteenth

century.28

In

addition,

the

same formulas

and

rules

were

repeated

each

time

a new insti-

tution

was set up, although

the basic

pattern

was supposed

to have been

set

once and for

all by the "General'nyi

reglament" of Peter

the

Great.29 The

"enlightened"

absolutism

of Frederick

II or Joseph

II, which

depended

so

much

on

administrative

guidance

and

action,

would

have been inconceiv-

able

without

this

late

seventeenthl-century

"rationalization"

of

chancery

procedures.

Even the notion

of the abstract interest

of the state taking prece-

dence over the prince's private

interests,

which

found

expression

in

the

well-known formula attributed

to Frederick

II

that

"the

king

is the

first

servant

of

the

state,"

had

its

antecedents

in

the

chancery

and

cameralist

writings

of

the

late

seventeenth

century.30

Peter

I's

similar

statements

are

but a more

explicit

and secular

expression

of sentiments

that have their

root

in the

Protestant

notion

of the

prince's

calling

and

Christian

obligation

to

the welfare of his subjects.

Of

course there was much self-serving

in

this

rhetoric,

but

its thrust

is

to

be

taken

seriously.

"L'etat,

c'est

moi"

did

not

mean only that "I am the

state" but also that "the state is in me," that is, I

am its fullest

expression

and

its principal

organ.31

An

increasingly

strong

stress on the secular side of public

life

is an

oft-

noticed

characteristic of cameralism and absolutism.

The

wvell-ordered police

state was concerned

with

the promotion

of rational

organization

of all public

activity,

including

the

ecclesiastic

sphere. An interesting

illustration

may be

found

in the

very

beginning

of

the

eighteenth

century-long

before

the

impact

of

the

philosophes'

writings-in

the

revised

Church

ordinance

of

the principality

of

Hessen,

which,

for the

first time

since the

sixteenth

cen-

tury,

concerned

the proper

policing

of

public

worship.

In

specifying

the

order

of admission

to

Holy

Communion

the

ordinance

stresses

disregard

of social

and official rank. The

reason

given

is the

prevention

of arguments

and

quarrels

about

precedence.

But at the same time the ordinance

states

the government's

belief

in the

equality

of

all

subjects

before

God

and

the

priority

of

public

order,

so that

precedence

should

be

based

only

on

a

person's

proximity

to

the

altar, with

no

consideration

to

status

or

rank.32

This

detail, though

admittedly

minor,

is notable

since

we may

infer

that

in

28 For

example,

order of

A. A. Viazemskii,

Sept. 13, 1784, Central State

Archiives of

Old

Charters

in Moscow (hereafter TsGADA), fond

248, no. 6,570,

fols.

8-12.

sobranzie zakonot3

29 "General'nyi

reglament"

(General

Regulation),

Feb. 28,

1720,

in

Polnoe

Rossiiskoi

imperii

(Complete

Collection

of Laws of the Russian Empire),

1st

ser. (hereafter

PSZ)

(St.

Petersburg,

1830), vol.

6,

no.

3,534.

dates back to the Reformation.

Seckendorff,

30 And,

of course, the religious motivation

Teutscher

Fiirstenstaat,

and

von

Rohr,

Einleitung

zur

Staats-Klugheit,

give

good

formulations.

Their

near contemporary, Jacob

Dopler, still puts the religious motivation

in

almost

medieval

terms

in

Treuer

Herr

/

Treuer

Knecht

(Leipzig,

1694).

31 Fritz

Hartung,

"L'etat

c'est

moi,"

Historische

Zeitschrift,

169

(1949):

1-30.

32 Church ordinance,

Nov. 24, 1702, in Appel, Saminlung

Fiirstlichl-hessiscller Landesordnungen,

1no. 571.

The

ideas

of

religious

toleration

and

the

noninterference

into

basic

Church

matters

by even

the pious ruler are well

developed

by von

Rohr, Einleitung

zur Staats-Klughleit,

260-63.

1232

Marc

Raeff

earlier

regulations

it was taken

for granted

that precedence

would

be based

on traditional

status. The

close

similarity

with

Peter

I's legislation

in replac-

ing

traditional

hierarchies

by

a

more

mechanical

and

rational

"Table

of

Ranks" readily springs to mind.33

Similarly it was thought

that

the state should be concerned

about

educat-

ing

its ftuture citizens,

especially

its future administrators.34

It

is no

accident

that in view of their need for new parish clergy the Protestant

princes

took

the

initiative

in

creating

universities

in

German

lands. As a result,

the

six-

teenth

and especially

the

seventeenth

centuries

witnessed

the

emergence

of

the

university-trained

official

as the

principal

adviser

to

the ruler.35 While

in Catholic countries

the

public

role

of

the uiniversities

was on

the

decline,

the

Protestant

universities

were

modernizing

(aggiornamento

would

be

the

fitting, word) their programs to provide

training

not

only

for their

pastors

but for their jurists, physicians,

and

scholars

as well.

In

this manner,

by the

end of the seventeenth

century

many leading

universities

had become

major

avenues

for the modernization

of public

life.36 The

high

point

of this devel-

opment

was the

founding

of the

University

of

Halle-specifically

the estab-

lishment

of

a

chair

in

cameral

studies-to

prepare

students

for

the

vita

activa

in public

affairs

while

imbuing

them

with the

ethical

and

spiritual

values

of Pietism

and with their

responsibilities

as leaders

and

teachers. The

Pietist

foundation

in

Halle

stimulated

the reform of other

universities,

par-

ticularly

at Leipzig

and Frankfurt

an der

Oder

and paved

the

way for

the

new creation

of G6ttingen.

All

of

these

universities

were

to become

impor-

tant centers of natural law doctrines

as expounded

by Christian

Thomasius

and Christian Wolff and of the subsequent

German Aiifkldrung.37

We note that this development

in

German

intellectual

life

has a seven-

teenth-centtury

origin;

the university

ordinances

for Marbuirg, for

instance,

show an awareness of the need

for professional

training

for

state

service.38

If

we

compare

the

language

of these

Hessian

university

ordinances

with

33 "Tabel' o rangakh" (Table

of

Ranks),

Jan. 24, 1722,

in

PSZ, vol. 6,

no.

3,890.

34

For example, consider the creation of a collegium

illustre

in Tuibingen,

Marburg, and Cassel;

and for the less well-known

academic

gymnasium

at

Zerbst,

see Franz

Kindscher,

"Das

hoch-

fiirstlichie anhaltische akademische

Gesammtgymnasium

zu Zerbst

unter

Kannengiesser

(1662-

1680)," in

Mittheilungen

des

Vereins

fiur anhaltische

Geschichte

und

Alterthumskunde,

vol. 6,

pt. 2 (1892):

284-301.

may

be

gleaned

from

the

several

essays collected

in Guinther Franz,

ed.,

35

Interesting

data

Beamtentum und

Pfarrertum, 1400-I800

(Limburg

an der

Lahn,

1972), and in

Helmut Rdssler

and Gunther Franz, eds., Universitiit

und

Gelehrtenstand

(Limburg

an

der

Lahn,

1970). For

legal education

at

universities, see

first of all

histories of

the major

universities;

see

also

Erich

Dohring, Geschichte der deutschen Rechtspflege (Berlin,

1953), and Alfred de Curzon, L'enseigne-

nent du droit fran!(ais dans

les

universite's de France

aux

XVIIe

et

XVIIIe siecles

(Paris,

1920).

36 For the situation

in Hessen, see Wolfgang

Metz, "Das Eindringen

des Burgertums

in die hes-

sische Zentralverwaltung,"

typescript

(Gottingen,

1947).

(Polizeiwvissenschlaft): Ein

37 Hans Maier, Die altere deutsche

Staats-

und Verwaltungslehre

Beitrag zur Geschichte der politischen

W'issenschaft in

Deutschland)

(Neuwied,

1966); Notker

Hammerstein, Jus und Historie: Ein

Beitrag

zur

Geschichte

des

historischen

Denkens an

deutschen

Universitdten

im

spaten

I7.

und

im

I8.

Jahrhundert

(Gottingen, 1972).

38

University

ordinance,

1684, in

Appel,

Sammlung

Furstlich-hessischer

Landesordnungen,

no.

410.

The Well-Ordered Police State

1233

that

of

later Russian

edicts

on education

we

detect

an

unmistakable

simi-

larity in

tone.

True,

in

the

Russian

case

stress is on

the

development

of

"4useful"

noble

subjects,

as

well

as

trained

personnel,

while

at Marburg

there still is an emphasis

on

the

preparation

of pastors. But we must not

forget the secular functions of the Protestant

minister,

especially

in the coun-

tryside. And we are again on familiar

territory

when we compare the Hessian

ordinances

with some

of

the

proposals

for

reforming

ecclesiastical

schools

and the training

of priests in the reign

of Catherine

11.39The

time

lag should

not surprise us in view

of Russia's

condition.

We

clearly

are in

the

presence

of a continuum

in

time

for over

a century

and

in space

from

the Rhine

to

the

Volga,

rather than

of discrete

periods

and

regions

defined

in

terms

of

the spread of the ideas of the French Enlightenment.

Even a hasty perusal

of collections

of

police

ordinances

indicates

that

the

major

elements

of what

we

usually

subsume

under

Enlightenment

notions

were, in the latter decades of the seventeenth

century,

being

introduced

prag-

matically,

in competition

to the earlier

regulatory

and

directive

approaches.

Thus, for instance, we note rational persuasion and

appeal to

individual

initiative and self-interest in

the

Hessian

regulations

concerning

reforesta-

tion

and

the planting

of

fruit trees.40 Similar

elements

of

freedom

of

indi-

vidual

activity

as a prerequisite

of

individual

self-development

can be

de-

tected

in legislation

affecting

such

areas as health,

military

recruitment,

and

the

regulation

of trades

and

crafts. To

be

sure,

in

every

case

the

political

unit

is rather limited,

and it is still conceived

as part of a system of separate

and discrete units rather than as part of an all-European

polity,

or

even

humanity

as a whole,

as was

the

case

in the

second

half

of

the

eighteenth

century.4'

As a rule the German ordinances

concerning

the police

(in the seventeenth-

and

eighteenth-century

sense of the term, of

course) relied for their imple-

mentation

on

existing

corporate

bodies

and

functionaries

or

on

officials

already

in

place. And

if

a new

office was

created, it was

usually

staffed

by

someone

representing

the corporate

or constituted

body

most

directly

af-

fected by the new regulation,

as for example

in the

Hessian

ordinances

con-

cerning

the French

Huguenot

refugees:

police

and judiciary

functions

with

39 On

Russian education

in the eighteenth

century,

see

in particular

Mikhail

F. Vladimirskii-

Education in Eighteenth-Century

Russia) (Yaroslavl, 1874), and Pavel N.

Miliukov,

Ocherki

po

istorii

russkoi kul'tury

(Essay on

the History of Russian Culture), 3 (Paris,

1930). For ecclesiastical

schools specifically, see Petr V. Znamenskii, Dukhovnye

shkoly

v

Rossii

do

reformy

I8o8

g.

(Ecclesiastical Schools in Russia Prior to the Reforms of i8o8) (Kazan, i88i).

Catherine's notions

for the education and

role of the

parish

clergy are

briefly discussed

in my study, "The Empress

and the Vinerian Professor," Oxford Slavonic Papers, n.s. 7 (Oxford,

1974):

18-41.

in

40See especially the edicts of

1707, 1713, 1721,

1722,

and

1724 on the

planting

of

trees,

Hessische

Polizey

Verordnungen

die Hude,

Garten und

Plantagen

betreffend,

I647-I745

(n.d.,

n.p.),

not

paginated,

a partly

handwritten

collection

for

didactic

purposes.

considerer toute

41 A

certain August

Witzman

writes

around

1790: "Il faut pour

ainsi

dire

l'Europe comme une grande ville commer ante et les differents etats

comme

autant

de

magasins

de

marchandises."

Memorandum,

n.d.,

Leningrad

Section

of

Institute

of

History,

Academy

of

Sciences of the

USSR, Leningrad, fond

36,

no.

451,

fol.

i6o.

1234

Marc

RaefJ

respect

to the

reftugees were

to be

taken

care of in

part by existing

Hessian

officials and in part by functionaries

selected

from am-ong the French

Hugue-

nots

tlhemselves.42 A

very

different

sittuation

obtained

in

Russia,

especially

with the regular police functions

that had already been

developed

in 'Western

and Central

European states. Introducing

modern

administration

and police,

the Petrine

state had to create new

officials for the

purpose. True,

they were

frequently

drawn

from

the social grotup most directly

affected

by

the

legis-

lation,43 but

it

was a compulsory

draft

that

transformed

them

into

virtual

state servants and made them responsible

for

the

actions

of

their

fellows.

The

paradoxical

consequence

was that there

was, simultaneously,

a delay

in

the

formation

of a

professional

bureauicracy

for

the

local

instittutions

and

the

prevention

of

the restructuring

of

social

groups

along

self-governing,

corporate

principles.

In essence, Peter I and his successors were closely

following

the

model

offered to them by the

police

ordinances

of

the

German

states.

But

the

interesting

differences

in

the

consequiences

and

subsequent

evolution

stemmed from the means that

were

at

the

disposal

of

the

Russian rulers.

The

explanation

was not in the more

impulsive,

direct,

and brutally

coercive

Russian wvays.The

main

point

is that the

Russian sovereigns could

not

rely

on

those social resources that were available

to

their

European

models,

largely

as a result

of sixteenth-century

policies

and

development.44

They

had

to create

the

social

matrix,

which

already

existed

in

the

West,

as well

as the

instruments,

as

did

their

models,

in

order

to

make

their

reforms

stick.

But

in

pursuing

both

ends

they

undermined

the

effective

growth

potential

of

each.

In Central

Europe

the

old

estates

were firmly

set

and

could be put to use, even though

in

the

final

analysis

the

new

policies

and

developments

were to threaten

their nature and very survival. But

in Russia

the

old "estates,"

to

the

extent

that

they

existed

at all,45 could

not

be

used,

42

Hessian ordinances concerning Huguenot refugees,

i688

and

Oct.

13,

1700,

in

Appel,

Sammilung Fiirstlich-hessischer

Landesordmangen,

nos. 437, 439,

531.

These may be

contrasted

to the bureaucratic approach of Catherine in setting up a chanceiy

for

the guardianship of

foreign

settlers. "Kantseliariia

po

opekunstvu

inostrannykh

kolonistov,"

July

22,

1763,

in

PSZ,

vol.

i6,

no.

ii,88i.

merchants

were

selected

for membership

in

the

Glavnyi

Magistrat,

a

sort

43

For example,

of city

council.

See

"Reglament

ili

ustav

Glavno-go Magistrata"

(Regulation

or Statute

of

the

Main Magistracy), Jan. i6, 1721,

in PSZ, vol. 6, no.

3,708.

and

Max Seycdel,

44

Herman Rehm, "Die rechtliche Natur

des Staatsdienstes,"

in Georg

Hirth

eds.,

Annalen

des

deutschen

Reiches, vol. 17, nos. 10-12

(Munich,

1884):

565-792;

Georg

von

Below, "Die Neuorganisation der Verwaltung

in den deutschen

Territorien

des

i6. Jahrhunderts,"

in his Territoriuni

und

Stadt

(2d

ed.;

Munich,

1923), 194-208; Heinz

Dollinger,

Stiudien zur

Finanzreforin

Maximnilians I von

Bayern

in

den jahren

1598-I6I8:

Ein

Beitrag

zurGesclhichte

des Friihabsolutism Us

(G6ttingen,

1968).

Russia,

see, for example,

J. L. Keep,

"The

Moscovite

45

On

the

vexed

question of

estates

in

Elite

and the Approach to Pluralism," Slavonic and East

Eauropean Review,

47

(1970):

201-31;

Guinther Stokl, "Gab es im

Moskauer

Staat

St3nde?"

jahrbicher

fJiT Geschiichlte Osteuropas,

11 (i963): 321-42;

and, most

impressively, Hans-Joachim Torke,

Die

staatsbedingte

Gesellschaft

iin Moskauer Reich: Zar unizdZemlja in

der altrussischeuz Herrschaftszerfassung,

I6I3-I689

(Leiden,

1974).

The Well-Ordered Police State

1235

a reading of the

Traite' de police.

46

R. A. Dorwart,

The Administrative Reforms

of Frederick William I of Prussia (Cambridge,

Mass., 1953); Dorwart, The Prussian

Welfare State

before 1740

(Cambridge,

Mass., 1971). For

the

broader context of the baroque world, see

Hinrichs, Friedrich

Wilhelm

I.

47

Nicolas de LaMare, Traite de police

(Paris,

1722;

2d ed.,

expanded,

Amsterdam,

1729).

48

"J'ay ensuite

montre que son [poilice] unique

objet

consiste a conduire

lthomme a sa plus par-

faite

felicite dont

il

puisse jouir en

cette

vie.

.

.

On y decouvre

en

meme temps

combien

menc6 d'etre suivies des le premier

Age du

monde.

. .

. Les Loix . . . ont la droite raison

pour

cause efficiente,

le bonheur

des Peuples,

le

bien et le

repos des Etats pour fin. Les

Loix

n'ont

pas seulement

pour

objet

de

punir

les

vices, mais

encore d'exciter h la

pratique de

toutes

les

vertus."

De LaMare,

Traite

de police (2d ed.), preface, pp. 4, 240. And

note a

later

statement,

derived

from de LaMare, of much more sweeping import: "La police . . . renferme l'universalite

des soins relatifs a l'administration

du

bien

public, le

choix et

l'emploi

des moyens

propres a

le procurer, a l'accroitre, a le perfectionner.

Elle

est,

on peut

le dire,

la science de

gouverner

les hommes et de leur faire du bien, la maniere

de les rendre, autant qu'il est possible,

ce

qu'ils doivent etre pour l'inte&r&general de la

soci&et." J. B. Ch. LeMaire,

"La

police

de

Paris en 1770: Memoire redige par les ordres de

Mr. de Sartine," in A. Gazier, ed.,

Memoires

de la societe de l'histoire de Paris et

de

l'Ile

de France,

5 (Paris,

1879): 27-28.

1 238

Mllarc Raeff

stitute corporations

to perform the many services that

the

state

demanded

from

them-for

example,

the

Glavnyi

Magistrat-resulted

in

failure.

The

most

energetic

and progressive urban elements withdrew

and

avoided

the newvinstitutions,

wvhile the administrative

bodies

of the cities

were

trans-

formed

into

the

reluctant

agents

of

the bureaucracy,

losing

their

spirit of

enterprise

and

social

autonomy.58

Catherine

II

had,

therefore,

to

return

to the task; to implement

her

"Ustav

blagochiniia,"

as

well

as

to

create

the socioinstitutional

matrix

for the modernization

of Russia's

economic

and

cultural

life

that

she

aimed

for,

she

had

to

develop